Today, I’m going to try something new: Keep it short.
This is going to be the last newsletter for a while, and to be honest, I’m happy about that. My day job has taken up a lot of my energy the first six weeks of 2024 (hence why this was late by a week), and I’ve spent most of my spare time planning, reflecting, predicting what’s ahead, and writing about my planning. I’ve done a LOT of planning, and I’m anxious to get back to building.
Looking Forward In 2024
By Elliot Koss, Founder @ Future Mints
As I look ahead for the year to come for Future Mints, I see a lot of opportunity in the blockchain space. I recently attended the ATX DAO Pitch Competition, and I think most people would be surprised at how much is being built right now. The infrastructure of Web3 and a decentralized world is coming together, though I’m still skeptical that 2024 will be the year blockchain goes mainstream.
I’ve outlined 4 Objectives for Future Mints in 2024.
Operate A Financially Sufficient Business
Build A Foundational User Base
Launch the [NEW] product
Write the Future Mints Blockchain Foundations book
To be honest, the order is likely not correct since arguably #4 may be my first or second highest priority. But I’ve done enough planning. I can sort this out as I begin to build this year.
Operate A Financially Sufficient Business
Running a business means that your end goal is to provide some widget that people are willing to pay for, whether that’s a physical / digital product or a service.
I don’t intend to sell anything in 2024, but I do have some expenses such as the fees for maintaining a C Corp. I also haven’t turned off the Future Mints website, because I still like to look at it. But there is a cost to maintaining it.
This Objective is mainly about reducing some server costs so that I can keep my expenses as low as possible. In general, I invest a little every year in the business to cover the minimal operating expenses while I’m building out this next phase.
I’d like for Future Mints to be self-sufficient by the end of 2025 which means that hopefully December 2024 or January 2025 will be the last time I need to invest in the business. To make that more attainable, I want to get my costs down a little further, hence this Objective.
Build A Foundational User Base
There’s a new product that I’m currently building. It takes the community aspects of Future Mints and amplifies them, but to do this well will require writing a bunch of code. I work a full-time job, so writing code isn’t exactly something I have bountiful time to do.
Plus, communities require having people actually interested in what you’re doing.
The most basic version of this new product is hosting networking dinners, which requires some planning, organization, and communication. January was the 3rd dinner, and while it’s super manual right now, I’ve enjoyed seeing and meeting people.
My 2nd Objective this year is to grow the current list of about 30 people to 500. This is going to require me hitting the pavement and actually attending networking events. While I’d love if people randomly discovered what I’m building, I’ve done this enough to know that just because you build something doesn’t mean that people will find it or find it interesting enough to join.
Getting to 500 this year will be a big effort, and I just have to do it one networking event at a time. If you live in Austin and want to join, just reply to this email.
Launch the [NEW] product
The entire purpose of building out a user base is to 1) validate the idea 2) iterate on the general execution and 3) learn enough to build a product.
While I have a landing page for people to submit an email to get on the mailing list for the monthly dinners I’m hosting, that’s not a product.
I’ve begun designing a proper, mobile-first product, and this year, I’d like to complete the designs and build out the first iteration. I’m not sure if it’ll be an actual MVP, but my goal is for the product to be usable for managing the dinners I’m currently hosting.
This may seem excessive. Why wouldn’t I just manage these dinners in an existing platform like Meetup or Facebook, etc? It’s a valid question. The rationale is that blockchain technology enables new ways for communities to interact. After all, the NFT as a membership key was one of the coolest features of the 2021 / 2022 NFT boom. Being able to join a token-gated community to chat with like-minded people was a blast.
I believe there’s a missing piece of technology that would allow for these communities to continue their interactions in real-life. Future Mints was all about helping NFT hodlers and communities learn about and understand the benefits of their NFTs. What’s coming next will enhance community interactions with a focus on bringing communities together instead of the transactional ‘what does my NFT do for me’.
I still think that there’s a value for what Future Mints does. The question is whether this new product incorporates those features or whether this new product and Future Mints work together but separately. I’m not sure that I’ll answer this question in 2024, but I do plan on launching a new product this year.
Write the Future Mints Blockchain Foundations book
In 2023, I wrote a lot about the blockchain. The intent was to create a book for business professionals to help them make sense of the blockchain and how it could be used for practical business use cases.
This year, my goal is to finally finish up writing the book. I have about 150 pages written already, which is a great start. However, as I’ve reflected on the content that’s been written and compared it with what I want to say, I realize that there is an obvious gap.
What’s been written so far is largely informational and educational. But it lacks the purpose and sense of direction that would make what is written a must-read. On top of that, the intent for a book is to help business professionals understand and maximize the blockchain which means that I’m not just writing about the world as it is today but I’m also writing about the world that is to come.
This will require talking about how AI and the metaverse will both use the blockchain as a foundational pillar which I don’t think has been clearly articulated to a wide audience. Most people interested in the metaverse understand that the blockchain is essential for enabling interoperable experiences, but that knowledge is likely lost on most people who are casually interested in the metaverse and it’s likely foreign to those uninterested.
When it comes to AI, most people likely don’t realize that AI hallucinations (the scenario where AI will literally just make something up to fill in the gap) can be solved with blockchain. I need to do some more research, but my hunch is that AI will require blockchain to hit the accuracy and reliability requirements for it to be scaled to the utility we see in movies and books. Today, AI can do some things, but for AI to behave like a human, my hunch is that there’s a missing element that only blockchain can solve. Whether it’s in humanity’s interest to fill in that missing piece is a wholly separate question, but it’s also one worth considering.
Which means that perhaps my book becomes an exploration of AI, blockchain, and emerging technologies instead of thinking about the blockchain in isolation.
Whatever happens, I feel like the time spent on this book will provide focus for exploring topics that are at the cutting edge of technology.
My goal is to complete a first draft and edit of the book, then submit it to publishers (a process that is still foreign to me). While submitting to publishers, I’ll also need to explore how to make the book available to all the Future Mints NFT hodlers. There are a few ideas I have in mind, and the one I’m leaning towards includes snapshotting and airdropping NFTs to each Future Mints hodler so that they can redeem the airdropped NFT for the book. This would require some engineering and design work, so I’ll have to weigh these time costs. Regardless, in the best-case scenario, I’d expect the book to publish in 2025.
Next Update
This is going to be my last newsletter for a while. I’m not sure when I’ll write the next one. Perhaps at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. Perhaps not until the end of 2024.
Just know that while I may be radio silent, I’ll be focused on the goals outlined above.
I can’t wait to send the next update whenever that may be.
Thanks for staying on this journey with me,
Elliot